For Lt. Jason Rogers, of the Louisville Fire Department, that scenario couldn't provide better training conditions for firefighters trying to master their craft.

The opportunity to simulate the kind of blaze that could chew through a house in the city will come early next year, when crews finish work on a new fire training center in Louisville's Colorado Technology Center. The complex will include a "burn building" where firefighters can refine their skills under real-life conditions.

Construction of the facility, which is located on a 3-acre plot at the northwest corner of Boxelder and South 104th streets, began earlier this month.

"With a building like this, we can create these real fire conditions," Rogers said. "It's a way to train under live fire conditions, but we do it safely."

That includes perfecting the methods behind fire attack, search and rescue, and ventilation, Rogers said. It also allows crews to study the dangerous aspects of a raging fire, like smoke "rollover" and smoke stratification.

"It's a way to get our basics to sink in," he said. "It allows us to take all the things we've learned and all the tools and take them into this building and put them to work."

The $3 million project also will have a building dedicated to truck and equipment maintenance, which could one day be retrofitted to become the city's third fire station. The 2,400-square-foot burn building, made entirely of steel with a faux brick exterior, will resemble a typical single-family home in Louisville, Chief Tim Parker said.

"It basically represents a two-story house, maybe with an attic," he said.

Wooden pallets will be the fuel for the fires, and firefighters will get to see how flames behave in enclosed spaces -- without having to worry about the hazard of imminent building collapse, Parker said.

The chief said it's important for Louisville to have it own training facility because the department is made up primarily of volunteers -- 80 versus 16 career employees -- who don't necessarily have the time to travel to other communities to train. Parker expects the department to use the burn building weekly when it first becomes operational in January.

"We want to make sure we can take advantage of the time volunteers have," he said. "They don't have as much dedicated time as the career firefighters might otherwise have."

The new facility is being funded through the city's capital reserves, without any increase in taxes or long-term financing.